Welcome to our list of arts and cultural events happening in the NSW Central West gathered from artists, event producers, great local venues and groups across the region. Use the contact or ticketing details listed with each event.
It’s free to submit your local events.
For maps and details of museums, galleries, artist studios, historic sites, Aboriginal experiences and sites, craft shops, handmade retail outlets or public art go to the Culture Maps Central NSW menu.
This selection of works from Orange Regional Gallery’s Collection presents various approaches to the still life genre. Ranging from works on paper, painting, photography and ceramics, each is an invitation to imagine the daily life and narratives of the objects, artists, and times from which they were made.
This exhibition includes recent acquisitions by John Olsen OAM, Elisabeth Cummings, Peter Boggs, Kevin Connor, Rachel Ellis, Hendrik Kolenberg, Margaret Loy Pula, Mandy Martin, Arthur McIntyre, Mavis Ngallametta, Tom Polo, David Serisier, Tim Storrier, Aida Tomescu and John R Walker. These are shown alongside collection highlights.
Based in Hill End since 1997, Bergstrom now lives between Australia and Åland, a remote archipelago in Finland.
Bergstrom uses landscape and portraiture as vessels to navigate “human emotion, experiences and choices”, where the artist paints what she feels, rather than what she sees. Afterglow traces Bergstrom’s own life as it is reflected in the overtures and undertones of her subjects, from major landscape paintings and portraits to intimate sketches and drawings.
of artists associated with the artistic programs of BRAG and the Cementa art festival. Each portrait merges the personality and practice of artists with Australian birds to create a unique and whimsical knitted installation.
With over 35 years working in the bush, Archer’s life and work are inextricably linked with landscape. The Mermaid’s Tail presents large-scale paintings and works on paper from the last five years.
During this time Archer responded to COVID lockdowns and the period since, in which she has explored the South Coast of NSW. Archer playfully and surreally entwines her narrative with the landscape, marking time and experience – both real and imagined.
WASTE 2 ART Mid-Western 2023 is a community art exhibition and competition open to all local residents. It showcases creative works made from reused and recyclable waste materials. The aim is to challenge people’s perceptions about ‘rubbish’ and to celebrate the reuse and recycling of waste through arts and crafts.
Please join us for the opening at 6pm on Friday 12 May 2023 Join Michael Kempson, Founder and Director Cicada Press and Bradley Hammond, Director of Orange Regional Gallery for a discussion at 5.30pm prior to the opening. Book your...
WAYOUT_blp is a site-specific artwork by Margaret Roberts that makes the site an active player in the work by inviting anyone to lend an object they live with, to be arranged with others into one shape on the WAYOUT floor. These varied objects are the artwork’s ‘chance’ materials delivered by the site. The shape into which they will be arranged is known in art-history as a ‘blp’, and used as a ‘discursive mark’ for ‘here’, wherever it is located. In WAYOUT, that art-usage temporarily frames the objects and their lenders’ decisions to participate. Multiple forms of documentation are planned during the show: observational drawers are invited to record objects’ likenesses and oral history buffs are invited to record stories that lenders tell about their objects. After 7 weeks, this shape will dissolve as objects return home, their ‘provenance’ altered by participation in the communal ‘blp’.
Join us for the official exhibition opening for our May Feature Artist, Joleen Ford.
Exhibition will be open for viewing from 14th May until 10th June
Mudgee artist Rachel Melcher’s collection of works are coming to our gallery walls. ‘Close to Home’ is a series of landscapes and still life pieces, inspired by the Mudgee region. . On-display until July 6.
Safe Hands at 342 Peisley Street Orange is a place for those with disabilities and mental health challenges to work towards achieving something great.
The Waste 2 Art Community Art Exhibition and competition, sponsored by NetWaste and Lithgow City Council, is free to all residents of Lithgow/ Seven Valleys region to enter and gives aspiring and professional artists the chance to explore and share their waste reduction messages while showcasing their artistic ability.
JAN MELVILLE & KYLIE BLAKEMORE
Exploring photography, collage, mixed media and assemblage
ARTEXPRESS 2023 will make its way to the region for the first time with Mudgee Arts Precinct hosting the exhibition next month.
The annual exhibition features outstanding artworks created by NSW Visual Arts students for the 2022 Higher School Certificate.
Art competition for the community on NAIDOC come along for judging morning tea and more activities hope to see your entries submissions at the library on the Friday 7th July 2023.
The Colourful Shape Of Feeling, is a journey through a garden of abstract florals and vistas.
Unintentional in their outcomes, Owen’s vivid acrylic works delve into her subconcious as marks are made in layers – inspired by the visual vocabulary of imagery from her property in North West New South Wales. The scultural forms of Prickly Pear, weeds and brambles then a little pop of colour from a wild flower are all part of her language.
In 2022 artists from across the Central West were asked to use the album While the World Waits. as a jumping off point and inspiration for new work.
While the World Waits Exhibition is a curated exhibition in which selected artists each respond to one or more tracks, title or words on the album.
The exhibition will showcase work from across all mediums. You will see painting, sculpture, drawing, ceramics, moving image, animation, photography, glass and textiles.
Artists featured are: Bridget Thomas (Bathurst), Cate McCarthy (Yetholme), Gemma Clipsham (Bathurst), Gus Armstrong (Rylstone), Harrie Fasher (Portland), Heather Dunn (Bathurst), Heather Vallance (Orange), Helen Carpenter (Grenfell), Hugh McKinnon (orange), Jane Tonks (Orange), Laura Baker (Blayney), Lise Edwards (Lithgow), Henry Simmons & River Yarners (Bathurst), Robert Hirschmann (Portland), Shani Nottingham (Cowra), Stephan de Witt (Parkes), Timothy Seager (Bathurst), Aleshia Lonsdale (Mudgee), Steven Cavanagh (Hill End), Christine McMillan (Kandos).
As small mundane and usually overlooked pieces of single-use plastic, bread-tags are an abundant waste material, a polluting product that are abundant - a waste material, a polluting product. I reclaim and transform them, moving past their initial purpose and life span to become something ‘other’ that has value and meaning, provoking response and creating a space for dialogue about plastic waste. These breadtags have been saved and sent to me from people all over Australia and the world, as part of my ongoing work for 'The Breadtag Project’. Whatever the medium, I am continually drawn to pattern, colour, line and repetition. The theme of collecting is consistent, too, as I find solace and joy in the process of creating order from chaos, observing similarities and disparities. Through my work, I seek out small elements of beauty and interest in everyday life, of finding moments and objects that can either bind, comfort and hold us or confront and surprise us.
All the creative work is finished, the judging completed and now it’s time to announce the winners. It’s been a competition that has captured everyone’s imagination! This year we have more than 50 fabulous entries from across the Parkes Shire. Come along and see for yourself.
Brenda is currently camping out amongst the ancient landscapes of Lake Mungo in far western New South Wales. This echoes earlier solo trips to the Pilbara in Western Australia which resulted in some of her most captivating works that won her the Pilbara Art Award in 2004. Paintings from this trip will feature in this exhibition. Brenda finds the opportunity to create works on country, immersed in the landscape, an inspiration: “away from the mundanity of ‘I wonder how the tomatoes are going?’ You’ve got your kit, you’re self-sufficient and you F*** off. Exhilarating! You find yourself. It takes away the fluff of social constraints”.
Join us for the official launch to be opened by Espen Harbitz, proprietor or the Oriana Hotel on Thursday 8th June at 6pm All welcome, no RSVP required “I grew up in a coastal town in North East England which...
Don’t forget about our art exhibition on the June long weekend at the CWA Hall in Robertson Park.
Gulgong Arts Council is thrilled to announce that Wendy Sharpe, one of Australia's most acclaimed and awarded artists, who lives between Sydney and Paris, is visiting Gulgong as guest judge of our unethed competition in June 2023.
This year the theme is Home - What is home to you?
Mark your calendar for Peak Hill's 50th Annual Arts and Craft Exhibition on June 11-12 from 9:30am-4:00pm! The exhibition will take place across multiple venues include Peak Hill Leisure Centre, the Carrington, Peak Hill Country Craft and Visitors Information, Men's Shed AIF Hall, Sharah Sisters - Can Assist, and the Temple Lions. Experience a vibrant showcase of exhibitors, fascinating demonstrations, stunning patchwork quilts, delicious Devonshire teas, photography, mosaics, and so much more!
The What’s On calendar covers arts and heritage events happening across the NSW Central West in the local government areas of Bathurst Region, Blayney, Cabonne, Cowra, Forbes, Lachlan, Lithgow, Mid-Western Region, Oberon, Orange, Parkes and Weddin.
Event listings are sourced or supplied from local venues and arts organisations. Many events listed here have been originally shared by the organisers on social media. Whilst all care is taken – and accuracy is our priority – we can take no responsibility for date changes or the content of contributed information. Contact the event organisers listed for more details or to book tickets.
The best way to include your event is to use our SUBMIT HERE form (under the What’s On menu at the top of each page). These listings will be manually approved by the Arts OutWest team before publication. Please allow a couple of days for listings to be published. If you have submitted an event and want to make changes just email us at artsoutwest@csu.edu.au
‘Featured events‘ are those submitted directly online by presenters.
Event promotors are asked to only include their own original images / images that they have permission to use / copyright free stock images. For more information see our fact sheet on Using Images For Promoting Events (if you can’t see this link look under ‘Opportunities’ then ‘Resources’).